A tape feeder is provided with a reel holding section at which a reel around which a tape that holds an electronic components is wound is held, and a feeder main body which feeds the tape from the reel to a board working machine. On the board working machine, a plurality of tape feeders are installed in parallel along the conveyance direction of a printed circuit board. In general, the reel holding section is wider than the feeder main body. Therefore, the number of tape feeders which can be installed on the board working machine is limited due to the width of the reel holding section.
It is desirable that more tape feeders are able to be installed on the board working machine in accordance with an increase in number of types of the electronic components loaded on the printed circuit board. The tape feeder disclosed in Patent Literature 1 is provided with a movable mechanism which is provided between the feeder main body and the reel holding section. The movable mechanism allows the reel holding section to relatively move with respect to the feeder main body. In this technology, the movable mechanism changes a position of a reel holding section with respect to the feeder main body to avoid a contact state of the reel holding sections between adjacent tape feeders. Accordingly, the number of tape feeders which can be installed on the board working machine is restricted not by the width of the wide reel holding section, but by the width of the narrow feeder main body. In this manner, when the tape feeder is provided with the movable mechanism, it is possible to install more tape feeders on the board working machine.
In recent years, a tape feeder in which the reel holding section holds two reels has been suggested, and an example thereof is disclosed in Patent Literature 2. The feeder main body of this type of tape feeder also automatically feeds the tape from one more reel to the board working machine after the tape from one reel is consumed. Accordingly, since it is possible to omit splicing work of the tape in which manual work is performed, and to replace the reel in which the tape has been consumed while continuing production, production efficiency of the board working machine is improved.